n licensed in the State, and its
establishments were openly conducted in practically all communities.
Against this evil the sentiment of the women was solidly arrayed, and
it could not be ignored. Before they voted, a bill altering the law
would have been ignominiously pigeon-holed, but the ballot in their
hands wrought a change under which a measure abolishing gambling was
enacted. This was found defective, and gambling continued until the
next legislative session. The gambling interests organized a lobby to
prevent the enactment of a valid law against their business, but they
failed, the law was passed, and gambling has since been suppressed in
nearly all communities. The sentiment which obtained the law secures
its enforcement--men do not dare run counter to the wishes of women,
when the latter have in their hands the power to make or unmake
politicians.

The present session of the Legislature (1900) passed a bill exempting
women from jury service. Gov. Frank W. Hunt returned it with his veto,
in which he said that this was in response to the protests of the
women themselves, who objected to being deprived of this right. There
was some talk in the Legislature of passing it over his veto, but this
was finally abandoned. The women took the ground that while the
ostensible object was to relieve them of an onerous duty, the real one
was to protect the gamblers and other law-breakers to whom women
jurors show no favor.

It is to be regretted that Governor Hunt could not have been
influenced by the protests of women on another point. The law of Idaho
provides that while a wife may hold property in her own name, the
husband shall have control of it. The present Legislature passed an
act giving married women control of their separate property. This was
vetoed by the Governor, who said:

Our statutes as they now exist provide complete adjustment of the
property relations between man and wife, placing them upon equal
terms, excepting that the husband has the management and control
of his wife's property during marriage, unless it should be taken
from him on complaint of the wife for causes set forth in Sec.
2,499.

As the law stands the wife can secure control over her own property
only by going into court, showing that her husband is mismanaging it,
and obtaining a decree taking it away from him.

The law regarding the inheritance of the separate estates is the same
for husband and wife, b